Circle of Life
by Tkdoegirl
Summary: Zootopia has never felt safer than since Officers Hopps and Officer Wilde joined the ZPD. As partners, their crime fighting ability is unparalleled. But when a gruesome new case falls into their laps, and the stress threatens to overwhelm them, will the strain bring them closer, or simply tear them apart?
1. Chapter 1

Judy Hopps awoke at her usual hour of 5:30 and sprang out of bed as if she had all the energy in the world. After dressing and polishing her police badge in the mirror as part of her morning routine, she made her way down her apartment building's staircase, emerging onto the already bustling city street. The sun was barely peaking over the buildings, yet it seemed that Zootopia's inhabitants of all shapes and sizes we unperturbed by the earlier hour as they began the uphill battle that was your average Monday morning.

All inhabitants except for one, that is.

Nick Wilde leaned against the bus stop sign, waiting for his partner just like always – and just like always he still looked slightly ruffled from sleep and his eyes were half lidded showing he was not quite awake yet.

"You look awful, Nick," the bunny teased lightheartedly as she approached the sleepy-eyed fox, who in turn just shrugged.

"You know I'm no good 'till I've had my coffee," he yawned.

Judy rolled her eyes as she and Nick fell instep together and headed towards the small café on their way to the ZPD. They ordered their usual – a caramel latte and an everything bagel with lox for Nick, and a green tea and a carrot cake muffin for Judy – before continuing on to work. As he sipped his coffee and slowly started the rejoin the world of the living, Nick gave Judy a sideways look and smiled. "You know, if I'm recalling it correctly, today marks our one year anniversary of being partners."

The little gray doe beamed at him, her ears standing straight up in excitement. "You remembered!" she all but cheered. Nick shook his head in amusement as he took in her overjoyed expression, still smiling, and thinking to himself. Judy was one of those people that always seemed to be emotionally and mentally running at around a hundred miles per hour. It was so easy to get her excited, and quite honestly Nick couldn't help but think when she was like this that she looked like a certain "C" word Judy hated to be called. But it was true, though.

Judy was just so damned cute.

"How could I forget?" he replied easily, taking another sip. He knew better than to tell her what he was thinking at the moment.

"Sometimes I never know with you," she said, still smiling.

"You know you love me," he teased.

"Do I know that?" Judy replied with their typical banter, "Yes. Yes I do."

Nick's expression didn't change outwardly, but as always he felt the same mental pang as he always felt after they made that playful exchange.

 _I love you too, Judy._

He'd loved her for a while, if he was being honest with himself. Falling for the bunny had been easier than falling asleep after a long, hard day. It hadn't been too long after they'd solved the Night Howler case that he'd begun to realize it, and it had taken him even less time to decide that he should stay quiet with that little bit of information. As much as it pained him to look at Judy and know that she wasn't his, he knew it would be a hundred times worse if he lost her all together because he expressed feelings that she didn't reciprocate. _If_ she didn't reciprocate them – it was always the thought of that "if" that made this so much harder than it needed to be. Not knowing one way or the other was maddening, and he'd lain awake at night on more than one occasion playing scenario after scenario in his head.

 _What if she said no?_

 _But what if she said_ yes _?_

"Earth to Nick!" Judy's voice cut through the fox's thoughts and he noticed the bunny waving her paw in front of his face. "You awake in there?"

Breaking out of his mental wonderings he looked down at his partner and made a face. "Apparently I should have ordered a stronger coffee this morning. This case of the Mondays is getting me good. Sorry, Carrots," he lied smoothly.

Judy rolled her eyes, "Well you better snap out of it. Roll call's about to start."

True enough, while Nick had been in his daze, they'd made it to work and were now seated in the Bull Pen, sharing the large chair as they normally did instead of finding their own individually.

Chief Bogo then entered the room, and waved a hoof to quiet the ruckus of his subordinates as they greeted him.

"Morning all," he started in a bored voice, peering over his glasses at the room full of mammals before him. "We've got a fair bit of work for us today, so let's get to it. First order of business, we have a missing animal case – Office Hopps and Officer Wilde, you've proven yourself in this area enough," the water buffalo said, handing the pair a red folder. "I want you to see what you can do about finding the young zebra."

Judy opened the file and she and Nick read over its contents as Chief Bogo continued handing out assignments to the rest of the officers.

Ellie M. Pundamilia was a twenty two year old female zebra from Savanna Central who had been reported missing after never making it home from her night shift at a tavern called "The Watering Hole" late last night. There wasn't much information to go on just yet, but as Judy looked over the papers before her, she conceded they had done a lot with much less than this before.

After the chief dismissed the room, the gray rabbit looked up at the fox beside her raised an eye brow. "You ready, partner?"

Nick reached in his chest pocket and pulled out his sunglasses, placing them on his face. "Let's hop to it, Carrots," he replied.

Judy made a face at the pun and shoved him in the arm. "I'll go start the cruiser."

* * *

 **A/N: Hello everyone, I'm back again with a new story and its in a new fandom! It's going to be quite different from my stories so far, but I'm excited for the challenge.**

 **All comments are welcome as always, and I hope you all will enjoy the story :)**

 *** Also, fun little note: the missing zebra's surname, "Pundamilia" is Swahili for zebra.**

 **\- Erin**


	2. Chapter 2

It was an unspoken agreement between the two mammals that the first place to check out would be the Watering Hole tavern. Judy parked the police cruiser out along the curb in front of the building and she and her partner exchanged a look. This place had definitely seen better days.

It was a tavern for medium sized mammals, so it seemed it was probably most frequented by animals no larger than a hippo. Yet the way the wooden steps that lead to the paint-chipped doorway creaked under just the bunny and fox, however, left Judy wondering if the structure of this building was capable of holding an antelope, let alone a hippopotamus.

The place was empty of customers all but for a lone hyena hunched over the far end of the bar. The two officers hadn't expected it to be busy of course – it was a Monday morning after all.

Nick shook his head at the predator and shrugged, "It's five o'clock somewhere I suppose."

The bartender – a leopard – had looked up from polishing glasses when the fox and bunny entered, and watched them hesitantly as the approached the bar. "What can I do for you officers?" he asked.

"Good morning, sir. My name is Officer Hopps, and this is Officer Wilde. Do you know of an employee here by the name of Ellie Pundamilia?" Judy asked in a brisk, all-business tone. She was always very serious about work, while Nick on the other hand leaned against the counter casually and looked over his shades to peruse the booze selection, wondering how mad Judy would be if he ordered a quick drink while they were on the job.

 _Probably pretty damn mad_ , he decided, resisting a smile at the mental image of her standing there and disapprovingly tapping her foot fast as a hummingbird's wings.

The leopard set the glass and rag down he had been holding and leaned across the bar. "Yeah, Ellie's one of my servers. Is she okay?" The mammal looked genuinely concerned, and Nick felt a pang of sympathy, knowing it was going to be tough to hear what they were about to tell him.

Nick removed his shades and slipped them in his breast pocket, regarding the leopard somberly. "She was reported missing early this morning when she never came home." The fox paused a moment to give him a moment to let that sink in, and then continued, "What can you tell us about Miss Pundamilia the last time you saw her?" he asked gently.

The bartender looked visibly shaken, and it was clear he truly cared for his employee. "I – I don't know. Everything was normal. She was on closing shift last night, so she was the last one here after I left… but she couldn't have been here for more than an hour after that. She still clocked out at the correct time, and everything was locked up as it should be."

"What time was it when you last saw her, Mister…?" Judy asked, her trusty carrot pen in hand as she scribbled down notes.

"Jessie Leopald… And I guess it would have had to have been about 1am. We close at two, and I said goodbye to her on my way out an hour before closing," the leopard answered, and Judy made a note of his name and the time of last known sighting.

"Do you remember what she was wearing, Mr. Leopald?" the rabbit asked.

He grimaced and shook his head. "Honestly I don't, officer. I'm sorry."

They spent several more minutes interviewing Jessie Leopald and trying to glean any more useful information before finally, assuring the worried predator that they would do their best to find Ellie, and that they would contact him if there was anything else he could do for them.

After climbing back in the cruiser and closing the doors, Judy looked down at her notes with a sigh. "There's still not much to go off of. Everything seems in order here, so whatever happened had to have occurred _after_ she left work."

Nick scratched his chin thoughtfully and stared out the window. "Well this isn't exactly a very well kept part of town. I'm sure there are a number of things that could have gone wrong after she left. Leopald said she usually takes a taxi home, right? Why don't we start there?"

Judy gave Nick a bleak look, her amethyst eyes skeptical. "Do you have any idea how many taxi drivers there are in Zootopia?"

Nick ruffled her ears playfully, and she glared back annoyed. "I probably have a better idea of it than you do, Carrots," he chuckled. "But I'm not saying we talk to _every_ taxi driver in the city. That would take _forever_."

"Sooo…?" Judy asked, impatiently urging him to continue.

" _Sooo_ , I say we should get a record of who was covering this area about that time last night from each of the taxi companies, and whittle our way through _that_ list," he smirked. "It will be easy to rule out all the smaller cabs that couldn't fit a zebra, and then we can rule out all the cabs that didn't have record of a meter running at the time, meaning there was no client. At two in the morning, I can't imagine there would be that many cabs with clients on just these few blocks," he finished his plan proudly.

Judy smiled up at Nick, her eyes alight with excitement. "Clever fox," she complimented.

"I have my moments," he acknowledged playfully.

Judy rolled her eyes, but the smile stayed in place. "Let's head back to the ZPD to check the system for anything and see if we can't get ahold of those records from the taxi companies," she said as she started up the vehicle and pulled back out into the street.

"Sounds like a plan," Nick agreed, leaning back in the seat, and sneaking a sideways glance at the bunny. He loved the look on her face whenever they were on a case that had just produced a new lead. Once again, it was hard not to think of her lighthearted excitement as cute.

He was just happy that he was able to be a part of it.


	3. Chapter 3

Several hours later, Judy's excitement had disappeared and been replaced by frustration. Papers and folders were scattered across she and Nick's desks, and for all the digging they had done, they'd still come up with nothing. The bunny groaned, her ears laid all the way back, "We haven't found _anything_!"

Nick too was growing weary of the paper shuffling and constant phone calls to different cabbies. His plan had been sound, but none of the drivers had a client in the correct time frame that fit the description. He ran his paw over his muzzle tiredly.

"This would have been so much easier if we could have just looked at the traffic cams to see where she went when she left The Watering Hole," Judy sighed.

"Yeah, but lucky us! The camera on that street just so happened to be down last night," Nick growled, putting his paws behind his head and leaning back in his chair to stare at the ceiling.

"And it's impossible to identify anyone on the cams once they're in the vehicle; it just had to be _that_ one camera!" the rabbit groaned again and slummed over the desk, planting her face in the pile of papers before her. "Any new ideas from the clever fox?" she mumbled, her voice muffled through the desk.

Nick shook his head with a sigh, even though he knew she couldn't see him, and stood up, walking around their joined desks to place his paws on his partner's shoulders comfortingly. "Maybe we need a new perspective," he said and he gently kneaded at the tension in the bunny's muscles. She made a small sound of appreciation, but didn't say anything for a moment. "Look, we've got about an hour before we're off for the day. Why don't we review the statements from the family one more time, and then go grab some dinner or something? Try and clear our minds of it so maybe new ideas can surface?"

Judy nodded, and finally raised her head from the desk. "I hate the thought of just doing nothing while there's an animal missing, but you might be right," she agreed, however she wrinkled up her nose in displeasure. She always felt so useless when leads ran cold like this – she knew there just _had_ to be something they were missing.

"I know, I know," the fox sighed. He wasn't any happier about it. "But I think it will do us some good. The night team will keep looking into it, and Bogo will call us if there are any new developments."

"Well, let's review the family's statement one more time, shall we?" Judy said, straightening up and squaring her shoulders.

Nick dropped his paws back to his sides, "You got it, Carrots."

* * *

Later, Judy had to admit that she _did_ feel a lot better after she'd gotten some takeout food in her and had a chance to relax. She was currently sitting on the couch at Nick's place, next to the fox himself while the tv played Pig Hero 6.

"The criminals in these movies are always so straightforward – why can't it be this easy in real life?" she sighed, and sipped on her carrot milkshake a little more.

Nick chuckled, and since she was leaning on his arm where they sat, she could feel the laughter vibrate through his body. "Sometimes they are, those just aren't the fun ones."

Judy cracked a smile at that. It was true, of course. Some of the cases they'd had over that past year had been so mind-numbingly simple, it hadn't even been that thrilling to solve it. Smart and crafty criminals made their jobs a lot harder, but honestly, they also made it more exciting too.

It was relaxing, lounging here on the couch with her best friend, and she was happy that she'd agree to come over after work. If she'd gone back to her own little apartment, she'd probably just be brooding over the case. She never did sleep much when there was a case to crack, and without anything to even review at the moment, she knew she'd just end up driving herself insane if left alone to her thoughts. Nick was aware of this tendency of hers too, and usually tried not to give her the opportunity to sulk when they hit a roadblock like today. After all, according to him (jokingly of course) she was 'small and emotionally unbalanced.'

It was nearing midnight by the time the movie finished, and Judy groaned inwardly when she realized the time. Five thirty would come awful early, and she knew she'd need the energy for tomorrow. Just as she was about to tell Nick she was off for the night, her phone started ringing.

"It's Chief Bogo," she told Nick after glancing at the caller ID, and then swiped to answer. If the chief was calling at this hour, then something serious had gone down. "Officer Hopps," she answered.

"Hopps, that missing mammal case of yours just got a lot darker," came the deep voice from the other end of the line.

"What's happened, sir?" Judy asked, sitting up properly, her ears standing straight up in attention.

"You'll see for yourself when you get here. And brace yourself – it's not going to be pretty." Judy swallowed, her eyes wide. They hadn't found the poor zebra dead, had they? "Would you call Officer Wilde and have him come down here with you as well?"

"He's with me right now, so we'll head down there right now. What's the address?" She scribbled down the address in her note book as Bogo relayed it to her, and then ended the call. Nick was looking at her expectantly, and she noticed he had already grabbed his gun and utility belt.

"Time for a midnight stroll?" he drawled playfully, raising a brow.

"Of course. Want to do some sightseeing in the moonlight?" she responded sarcastically.

"Oh how romantic," Nick shot right back with a smirk, and Judy had to fight back a blush at his teasing.

"Shut up," she complained, punching in his arm as they left. Unperturbed, Nick rubbed his arm in mock hurt and laughed.

Well, at least outwardly he was unruffled.

 _Never let them see they get to you_ , he thought.


End file.
